


Love from Years Past

by the_song_you_gave_me



Series: Brick in the Wall [10]
Category: Alpha and Omega - Patricia Briggs, BRIGGS Patricia - Works, Mercy Thompson Series - Patricia Briggs
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 00:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15960728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_song_you_gave_me/pseuds/the_song_you_gave_me
Summary: Warren’s out for blood after he feels his Alpha fall. Meanwhile, Charles and Anna both fight to maintain control as Darryl and Mercy each face Bran in their own way.





	Love from Years Past

Samuel was not in Barbados. He and Ariana were on a beach in Northern California when the loss of his Alpha’s mate rocked through the pack bonds. He told his wife to stay safe, that it was a family emergency when his father, Alpha of the Marrok handed the pack reigns over to him.

 Why he got the reigns to all the packs across North America, and not his younger brother Charles who would have been closer to the mess and a more dominant wolf to handle such things, he didn’t know. But that meant Samuel was already on his way to a private airstrip when he felt Mercy fall under attack, and his father lost all control.

Samuel quickly shut down the pack bonds still tying his father to the rest of the werewolves in North America. The Marrok’s influence could end with every wolf losing themselves to the call of chaos brought on by Bran the Berserker running free again. For one tense hour, Samuel Cornick sat on the side of the highway in his car, blind to anything around him but the chaotic rage and pain streaming into him from his family’s bonds wound tight with a magic more ancient than any pack ties could claim.

Charles would be there, Samuel reminded himself. Charles would see to their father’s death if he could manage it.

Then the Berserker stilled for long enough that his da regained some control. Samuel breathed long and hard on the side of that road. His da wasn’t stable under any stretch of the imagination by far, but it would do for now.

It was a four-hour flight from where he was to Aspen Creek. Samuel checked his mirrors and stepped on the gas.

 

Bran takes a raw steak out of the fridge, unwrapping the butcher paper as Mercy sits on the kitchen floor, thumping her tail on the tile. “Eat.” He says as he drops the steak in the stainless steel serving dish waiting there as a sick joke. The wolf tears into the raw flesh. Between bites, she glares up at him. He wouldn’t last long giving her direct orders without facing her indirect wrath later. For now though, the wolf could listen to him.

He walks into the front room and takes a seat, bringing up the satellite maps of Aspen Creek on a tablet and immediately marking up the path that the death spell took through his woods. Charles could confirm it later. Bran just wants a general idea of the lay of the land in the direction he wants to search.

Mercy leaps into his space not long after. She stands over him, her paws on either side of his seat. He wonders if she’ll convince the monster inside him to kill her after all. His wolf claws at the surface of his control, meeting her eyes.

She almost backs down, almost, and does not show fear where others would be pressed down with their noses to the floor in submission. Mercy steps in a circle on his lap, curling up against his chest. She throws her front paws over one arm of the couch. Bran wraps his arms around her body, returning to the maps on the tablet.

He doesn’t bother to hide his anger as he traces out the swath of damage running through his territory. She growls in his ear, feeding the rage within him in a vicious feedback loop.

“Tomorrow, I plan to hunt down the witches who killed my mate and injured yours.” Bran runs a hand through Mercy’s brindled brown fur, his eyes burning with pale, golden fire. “Are you coming with me?”

Mercy falls asleep resting on top of him.

 

The Marrok’s house begins to fill as the Aspen Creek pack members filter in to be near each other. Most stay out of Bran’s view, the dark cloud of his rage barring the way into the front room. Instead, they come in through the back door and seek out the basement rooms where Anna and Charles rest with the new Columbia Basin Alpha couple.

Darryl and Auriele return to the motel after eating with the Marrok's various pack members. Anna and Charles both fill in the details of the day’s events as needed, but no more. Soon the pack repeats the story on their own to anyone else who walks in.

Charles works on his laptop, starting to arrange travel details for the hunt his father will surely take up. He does not expect Samuel to arrive by Leer jet a few hours later, though. Hank gives him a text when the plane touches down. He senses his brother brazenly enter the house through the front door not long after.

 

Samuel walks in to see Mercy sleeping on the sectional couch, her head on his father’s lap. Bran keeps focused on his tablet screen, one hand brushing through the fur on Mercy’s neck. Samuel passes Mercy, not looking at her, then sits on the floor on the far side of his father.

“What do you need me to do?” Samuel asks at length.

“An autopsy or two.” Bran answers in Welsh. “We’ll need an official death certificate for public consumption also.”

Samuel stays silent at his side.

“Find out what damage was caused by the spell.” Bran continues, “If you need help with the magical analysis, get Charles to look at them.”

“I saw the truck.” Samuel answers. “Are we okay?” the good doctor works not to look to Mercy as he asks his da about Adam. He knows his father’s wolf. In the eyes of the beast, she already belonged to him, his to protect and cherish.

She might not know it yet, but the only thing holding his father at a distance from her was his wolf’s mating bond with Leah. Even that had not kept his father from interfering in Samuel’s own attempt to claim Mercy as a mate. He wonders about that detached head in the bed of his brother’s truck.

He would clean up his father’s messes, make them fit for the outside world to see. They were all better off not knowing what he was like.

Samuel feels the yellow eyes of his father’s wolf glare down at his neck. He bends his head forward, exposing more flesh. Da wouldn’t kill him, not directly, certainly never intentionally at least. He is pretty sure his father’s wolf wouldn’t kill him either. Samuel wonders about Adam again.

Bran sets the tablet aside and leans forward to grab the back of his son’s neck, giving it a gentle massage. “We’ll be fine,” he says in English.

Samuel doesn’t call him out on the lie. “Of course,” he answers instead, the same lie in his throat.

“I’ll get the keys from Charles then and take them to the clinic.” He keeps his head lower than his father’s as he leaves the room. Samuel doesn’t look back at Mercy once. The price of his life wasn’t worth that.

 

Mercy’s wolf awakes first. She explodes off the couch, growling at Bran.

The Marrok ignores her, continuing his ongoing correspondence with Charles downstairs. His younger son found him a few articles to look at about a magic engine developed in Michigan. The size and shape match the circle of dead space carved through their forest. The new wolf before him doesn’t even know whether to step forward or back. He lets the pup growl.

The sound of gravel shifting outside draws Bran’s notice. An old jeep truck heads up the drive before needing to turn around to find a better parking spot. It would take them a while.

“Come here,” he tells the wolf, before her attention wavers to the newcomers outside. She obeys reluctantly, tail between her legs.

“There you are, beautiful.” Bran sighs softly to her alone, taking the wolf’s head between his hands.

She sneezes, glaring up at him, clear derision in her eyes. He likes her already.

A knock sounds at the door. He smells human, wolf, and something… other… waiting on his porch. Charles appears at the top of the basement stairs but stays behind him, regarding the door carefully.

Mercy’s wolf steps backward out of Bran’s hold. She shakes her head and scents the door. She then bounds toward it and turns to face Bran, growling at full strength.

The knock sounds again, full of impatience. “Hello? It’s Jesse Hauptman. Where’s my dad?”


End file.
